Reporting Outcomes Per Surgeon Tied to Drop in CRC Sx Mortality

THURSDAY, May 3, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The introduction of public reporting of surgeon specific 90-day postoperative mortality in elective colorectal cancer surgery is associated with a reduction in observed 90-day mortality, according to a study published online May 2 in The BMJ.

Abigail E. Vallance, M.B.B.S., from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London, and colleagues examined the effect of surgeon specific outcome reporting in colorectal cancer surgery. Data were included for 111,431 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer from April 1, 2011, to March 31, 2015.

The researchers found that there was no change in the proportion of patients with colorectal cancer undergoing major resection after introduction of surgeon specific public outcome reporting (63.3 percent before versus 63.2 percent after; P = 0.8). There was also no change in the proportion of these major resections categorized as elective or scheduled (84.5 versus 84.4 percent; P = 0.5). There was no change in the predicted 90-day mortality (2.7 versus 2.7 percent; P = 0.3), but there was a decrease in the observed 90-day mortality (2.8 versus 2.1 percent). This reduction was above the existing downward trend in mortality that was seen before public outcome reporting (P = 0.03).

"Public reporting of outcomes for individual clinicians seems to have triggered an improvement in outcomes after elective procedures," the authors write.